Friday, July 31, 2009

I purchased these Xyston Miniatures from Brookhurst Hobbies some time ago. I was originally interested in a low aggression, Littoral army with an ART option. The Phoenicians fit the bill with their Littoral, AG 0. I wanted to experiment with a combination of a waterway and a BUA utilized to narrow the playing field. I wanted to do this to give the Sp line a chance to dominate the center with less of a chance to get flanked. I hope it works.

Xyston has three different sets of Phoenician Sp. They had Marines, Veteran, and another I can not remember right now. I wanted to have three veteran Sp as a landing force and have another three with the main. I opted out of the seventh Sp for an Ax that you will see further down the page. The General is in the lead Sp element. He is the only guy with a sword in the whole army.I cut off a Sword from an unsuspecting extra guy and added it to a Phoenician Sp to make the leader stick out. He, of course, also has his private flute player next to him to keep him in step.

The Ax and 3 Ps. I intend not to make the other five optional Ax stands.

These are some Greek Cv figures. I tried to use some that were not to far fetched. I assumed that they would have been mercs anyway.

The ART was fun to set-up. I used a dowel to build the broken pillar. I am very excited to use this army here in the next few weeks.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

I had the opportunity to play DBA today with two guys I meet over Fanaticus Forum in Korea. What a treat. I never figured that I would get to play over here during my stay here. Ralph and his friend David and I played today in a mini tourney between the Gauls and the Carthaginians. The armies were from 1.1 DBA but we played the rules from 2.2. Was different, but worked out just fine. This is the final battle between myself (Gauls) and David (Carthaginians). We each played each other twice, so we all got in four games today, pretty cool.

Anyway the Carthos won terrain. The waterway was placed and I was lucky enough to have the water at my backside. So here is the rules question....Did we play/set-up this up legally? We placed our camps (mine is on the edge of the board at the left corner of the waterway). I arrayed my troops across the entire waterway minus the 3" "No set-up" zone. Once I removed the cards from my set-up it left the Carthos a 3" set-up ares for his landing force. By the way his landing force consisted of his CV General, a CV, and 2 x LH. Mean while his other forces were in a split formation on his side of the board. You will see them sluggishly moving across on the final picture.

Understanding the rules. The landing force must have two of its elements edges touching the edge of the waterway. He had plenty of room:) The way I see it, He had to land where I wanted him or not show up for the battle. Obviously, his general wanted to fight so he showed up. The first turn turned out to be bloody as my CV turned to face his GEN and another CV. The CV died and his General locked. Yes Terry, he was rolling like you usually do....his first four roles added up to about 5.

The Gauls formed columns and began to move to the right in order to get to fight as well. Mostly since my GEN was a WB and was feeling left out. Never even drew his Sword on this one. Things began to get worse for the Carthos and a LH was killed fighting the Gauls. Then David's die began to get better and he surged by moving his othe forces forward for a few turns. he also killed one of the Gaul CV and was looking pretty good. The LH was killed by a CV and a Ps door closing and then the General was on his own. Man that guy most assuredly eat his Wheaties this morning. He repulse a four stand pile-up three times. Finally, The Gaul CV got him with no recoil into a Gaul Ps. Game over.

Here you see the rest of the Carthos trudging along oblivious to the carnage that had taken place.

The question/interesting thing about this whole game was the Gauls set-up. Interesting point that if it was legal (we could not find anything to say it was not) Then you can basically set the landing force up for destruction. I would recommend, in this instance to opt for putting your back to a water way to discourage a Littoral landing.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

This Hussite Army was bought from Wargame's before Baxter took over. They were back ordered for almost a year. When I received them I found that the army pack, much to my irritation, had multiple WWG from different nationalities and only two posses of Bd. This put the army on hold for a very long time. I realized that the WWg figures were not the "Hussite" type wagon I was looking to have represent the army. I took the three wagons that were the same and converted them into what you see. The wagons sides are made from wood. I took the center wall and hung it on the outside of the wagon to give the fortress look so typical to the Hussite's. At HISTORICON 2008, I purchased two more wagons (the same ones as the three converts) and a slew of other Bd/Sp figures to diversify the force. The general has also been converted to hold a mace as well. I have not figured out how to get semi-gloss spray paint here in Korea yet, so these have not been sprayed.

Tony and I deliberated at lengthwhether or not to mount the WWG on a 40x80 or two 40x40's. The 40x40's won and I could not be happier with the look. All the flags in this army are made from paper folded over the staff. These flags were made before I figured out how to use my computer to size and duplicate the sides and then print them before painting. The Writing on the one wagon is from a Brewery that was founded during the Hussite wars and is still manufacturing beer to this day. Every army should have its own beer wagon.

Here are the 4 Blade elements. I wanted them to look as rag tag as possible. I even added some armored monks tot he ranks.